From violations of privacy, to the mainpulation or even maliciousness at its core, I think marketing at it’s current state is poison to society. But I also think it might be a necessary evil. What would be a good alternative implementation of advertising look like? Or do we even need it? If the former, how would advertising look in a non-capitalist society?
i definitely get the sense that this is one of those things where there has to be an absolutist solution or none at all (at least without huge changes to the world and the incentives to perversely advertise). i don’t know where you’d begin to draw a line on what is acceptable or unacceptable advertising–or in what venues–past “word of mouth is fine”. to be honest, a lot of my shopping is already done by word of mouth because it’s impossible to rely on anything else without getting made a rube, and that feels like a really good indication of where this’ll all eventually decay.